A couple of letters from Maurice landed on our mat this week franked with HM Prison
Service stamps. That's a first for us. What's ironic is that amongst Her
Majesty's post was a letter calling upon one of us to do jury service. Should
we state on the return form that we work for Maurice on a professional basis, do
you think?
In the letters Maurice has been busy outlining, in his own indomitable way,
events leading to his current predicament. Unfortunately, his hand writing is a
tad hard to decipher and we've not had time to translate it to type, I dare say
it would take us a week to unpick. So we've scanned the most legible and put
them up for reading which for the most part just about works...
Download
Timeline Letter here
Download Other Prison
Letters here
One document is a timeline of events from 1916 to present, yes that's right 1916.
As far as we were aware, it was to be a precise blow by blow account of events
since his arrest this month, except it also includes a historical prologue
about a replica DH2 war plane and a string of pages concerning his engagements
with the Police and other authorities prior to the present day. For your
information pages 7-9 provide the background details to the arrest.
The other document contains three shorter letters providing more information
over the circumstances of the arrest and his situation in Cardiff Prison.
Inside with Maurice's letters was a letter from another inmate for us to forward on;
we assume this was to save on the cost of stamps or maybe they are suffering a shortage, since taking Maurice in. We do know that Maurice has been
making a lot of new friends on the inside. The website is picking up quite a
following from friends and family of inmates. If you're visiting
the site after hearing about Maurice from someone in the prison, hello and
welcome! Please don't be alarmed by anything you read here, your associates are
quite safe. Although we do urge you to convey to those inside the
prison to please refrain from encouraging Maurice's natural urge to form an escape
party or to join it, should he succeed. He currently does not have a pilot's
license to fly the matchstick microlite he's building under his bed and by
which he intends to gain freedom.
We recently received a couple of phone calls informing us that Maurice has
been given a bail application form for a hearing next Monday. This indicates a
change of direction, since it was earlier understood that Maurice would remain
in prison with no opportunity to influence his circumstances until a jury case,
to be held at the end of the year.
We also have a copy of the summary of evidence against Maurice. It seems
that by and large the contents of this website form the main plank of the CPS
case and the fact that he won't go away and do as he's told, says
'inappropriate' things, might be of unsound mind (and/or an alcoholic) and on
the testimony of a certain undercover cop code-named 'Foxy' who covertly asserted that at one time he owned a live
WW1 era machine gun or "lethal barrelled weapon" before he sold it to the RAF
over a year ago. Lastly, various experts have been employed to sign bits of
paper that confirm all the worst suspicions.
It sounds as if a considerable amount of resources have been invested in
making sure Maurice goes down, and we must admit that he's undoubtedly provided
the ‘ammunition' for them to succeed. What's odd is that most of the evidence
is rather old having been in the public domain (on this website) for ages (see
blog/picture archive).
So why now has all this come to light? Was it really to do with an impending
court case against the South Wales Police for harassment, we asked ourselves?
If this were true it would either mean that there's some truth to Maurice's
argument or the legal system is totally incapable of dealing with his
accusations. It could well be that the Police genuinely believe that Maurice is
a dangerous man who needs to be taken off the street. But having
known and worked with Maurice for more than a decade at best, such a thing seems unlikely and at worst it looks like a convenient excuse to discredit and beat him down with.
Ultimately the charges come down to owning a firearm, whether working or not,
without a proper license and we doubt Maurice would ultimately deny the
technical fact of the charge. What is open to question are the motives behind
the charges being applied at a particular point in time, just prior to a
court case involving the South Wales Police. That is the most worrying
element whether you sympathise with Maurice or not.
Maurice's official reply to all this was recorded as "I think it's
rediculous" (SIC)